I'm sure many of you are aware of some disputes coming from the actions of users and moderators in the activities forums lately. Users keep insisting to ingore site policies and moderators insist that site policies apply to every area of the site.

Many users were finding their posts edited or deleted for failure to comply with site policies. Many users were also taking upon themselves to call moderators names and ask why they were so "mean" for doing their duty on their free time to help uphold site policies and keep this a family-friendly envirement for everyone to enjoy discussing their favorite game, POTCO.

Since it appears after several months of this going on, that neither side can agree to the conduct of the activities forum. The activities forum was a curtesy of this site to have to give a place for bored users a place to play "just for fun" type threads. But seeing how all the disputes are stemming from just this one, not really needed forum, on the site.. the administrative staff has decided to get rid of this forum.

Thanks to the many people that patron this site and we hope everyone continues to do so.

As much as we all love the Activities forum, I think that there's no need to get worked up over them. If a moderator edits your post, they're not doing it to be mean, unreasonable, or because they have a grudge against you - I'm sure that the mods have better things to do in this situation than spark petty disputes in the forums. Not to mention, I find it to be my personal opinion that the activities forum has gotten way too out of hand, going away from something to do when your bored and more of something you do all the time. I've seen some pirates play around more in the activities forum more than I have seen them contribute to the posts about the game/their guilds/etc.

If you really need to do something that badly, then utilize the other areas of POF - start a blog, write a story, write PM's to pirates you want to meet. There's so much you can do on this site than sit around and play in the ban game.

And I know what some of you are saying - how "pride" and "honor" is the main thing that you're trying to fight for in the little conflict in the mods. In the end though, mates, you need to realize that sometimes you step over your boundaries when you think you are well within them, and the mods have the final say in every decision. I know you may be angry that what the mods is doing is "unfair," but step in their shoes for a moment. They have jobs to fill and families to be a part of, creating a schedule just as hectic as any of us. Then, they come home and want to dedicate their time to bettering the community of the game, but if they so much as make a movement of judgement then they get rained down upon with negative comments and attacks. If you're going to pick a fight, you need to put yourself in your target's position.

Case and point, just let it go. You all have better things to do than fight over a forum for games - let's all just go back to playing the game we're all here for, and above anything enjoying each other's time, savvy?

Yes, the activities were getting out of hand. Yes, there was modding left, right, center, hither, thither, and yon everywhere.

HOWEVER. With old mods stepping down and new mods coming in to take their place, there was obvious confusion everywhere. All of the old activity people knew how to react to those mods, not the new ones. The new mods didn't know how to react to the old activity people, so they went and followed the rules to the letter when everyone else wasn't used to that. It was a lot of confusion everywhere. As new activity members came in, they didn't know the difference, so they followed what the old activity members did, only with their own twists and spins, and not necessarily for the better. It all fell into chaos because the mods didn't agree with the people and the people didn't agree with the mods so the people just stopped caring.

I don't necessarily agree with the closing down of the Activities forum, but from an objective viewpoint I can see why it happened. However, let me say this. I stayed on these forums because the activities made it fun. Part of my reasoning for leaving was because they weren't fun anymore. I hope nobody is surprised if a lot of members no longer stick around.

There are a lot of viewpoints on this subject. There are a lot of pros and a lot of cons to doing this, and you can point fingers at various people/groups about "who's fault it was." First let me state my opinion.

In my opinion, I do not feel that this was necessary, nor really a good choice, if you don't mind me being so bold. Way back when I joined POF, over a year ago (Good grief its been a while....), we had a completely different set of mods than we do today. When people posted on activity threads they were seldom edited unless it was something TOTALLY off topic (I ban so and so because I found the Lost Sword today!) or if it contained something inappropriate. Things were pretty relaxed back then, and there seemed to be nothing that was wrong. It was extremely rare, if ever, that drama ever arose or there were major disturbances. Today though, I notice that with the new batch of mods (and no offense to them, and I don't want to point fingers), I noticed that things were really a lot more strict than they needed to be. If you don't mind me saying, I don't see much reason to go in and moderate something a lot more than it used to be when everything was fine back then.

Because of this increased modding, that many people really considered highly unnecessary seeing as there wasn't much problem before there was modding, people, as Crestshot said, were quite shocked and surprised with this new modding of something that hadn't really been monitored before. While I do agree that the users' reactions to this increased modding (such as trolling moderators) were NOT okay, if you'll allow me to say, it may have been due to modding that probably wasn't needed. There wasn't really anything wrong with the activities before. People would occasionally push things a bit perhaps, but really there was no harm done. If you do not mind me asking, what was the main incentive to start moderating the activities stricter than before?

I will not try to hold up any sides very strongly, but I did want to state my opinion. In all honesty, I am not pleased with this, but I will learn live with it.

To the mods, is there any chance of the activities section ever coming back? As Crestshot said, quite a few users may not stick around anymore because of this. If this change is permanent, then we may never see these users, some being veterans of POF, again.

I agree with this point of view. Although many people found enjoyment out of this section, no one was benefiting from this part of the site. So far, I have agreed with many of the actions that the mods have taken, and I stand by this point of view. They don't fly the pink name for fun (I hope they don't). They volunteer for this position.

Seeing all of the fights that have broken out as a result of the Activities Forum, it will not be missed by me.

I agree that we have all had fun on it at one time or another, but itt was not something that was needed. After all, this is PIRATES ONLINE Forums, correct? Our method of being with each other SHOULD be in-game, yes? Then what is the need for the Activity Thread?

I recently noticed that the Activities forum was getting too overwhelming and spammy, and I respect the decision to remove it. Although most of the games were pirate themed, the forum didn't really help us to get to know each other better, or allow us to discuss the main topic of the site... Pirates Online.

Recently I decided not to post in the Activities section again, because, as Del said, I was using it more than posting about Pirates Online itself. I feel that the Activities section wasted the time of all frequent posters, including myself. It wasn't beneficial at all.

I completely agree with why you've decided to remove the section, and I'm relieved that we'll be able to stay more on topic. I'm here to talk about Pirates Online, for that is the reason that I joined.

I could not agree more in Crestshot's post. I am no longer seeing that much threads on here to take part of anymore ever since. One part I have to agree on people use it to rack up post counts and try to make them selves look "cool". The POTCO site news does not update everyday you know. So its like there is nothing to do. The activity thread was the thing to make this a great place and it stitches everyone together. I am saying this clearly. I do not like the shutting down of the activites forum. Period.

I'm always a day late and a dollar short! I Joined POF after activities was closed. I was very excited to see that off topic games were offered. But sadly I see that a few posters were the demise of this thread. I play the Ban game and a few other off topic games on another unrelated forum. The fact that we are even on this site is because we enjoy games, so playing a game in a game forum is not that odd.

I'm sorry that I missed out on participating in the activities thread and hope that it is opened again.

Mods are the overseers & pioneers of the forum. Their decisions have kept POF up & running for quite awhile. Moderating, I'm certain, is not an easy job & requires time & patience in many cases. They are required to intervene when established rules are stretched or broken. That's what keeps forums like this ongoing. They are friends to all, but sometimes have to step in and right the ship. This pirate has great respect for anyone who chooses to volunteer his/her time and for the decisions they make. Each decision is for the greater good of the forum IMHO. "Ya can't please all the ppl all the time." But, a Mod must keep to the Code of the forum.